Bought a 12' S.U.P. from Sandwich Island Composites this year. It's carbon. hollow and has the soft deck. Full surf rocker, etc.
Many told me that I wouldn't enjoy it for S.U.P. because it lacked the glide. It paddles fine and is a great light wind freestyle board. EXCELLENT in light air in the waves. www.paddlemaui.com/ It is the Ku Nalu model.
Hooper is right for the 12-18 kt waves. Kiting is a lot of fun.

Footstraps with or without? I'd like to have the option of either. I've been doing the lightwind thing for so long that I end up using the front straps sometimes, or both, or none. Been doing the Braille for footstraps technique longer than I can remember. My feet seem to know where they are already...

Ducktail allows for a twistier turn at lower speeds, and a more driving off the fin feel when planing. Foam decks are easier to grip when doing long delayed stalls at the tops of waves, and other foot steering app's. Can't see the appeal of waxing a giant board, but the some of the surfer crowd baulks at anything resembling a windsurfer. Dilema about the crossover effect. Different mktrs are trying various approaches.

Kiters, kindly butt out of a windsurfer thread, thank you. In most of the cases of longboards in waves (punky 12 knots and down) you can't keep your kites flying anyway. Or, are you trying to bait someone? Can't we all just get along? Plenty of venues where kiters have been kicked out, not because the majority behaves badly...

the kites can definitely fly in 12 kts of breeze. Windsurfed for about 13 years now and only started kiting about 3 years ago. It's fun but work gets in the way of being on the water EVERY available moment.

Kiters are fine as long as they don't have the anti attitude and that goes for us too.

Ride and have fun. That is what it is all about.

My big board has no straps. Not needed. It is a lot of fun. Today looks to be a bit smaller hehe. Just got to get my a$$ out of here !

The anti-windsurfing started with Trip F___'s BS. I've hated his business ever since. A joke, right.

Dunno if you've been paying attn. 12 knots or less = no kiters. Oh yeah, yesterday, wind 8-40 = no kiters again. Looks like kiting was canceled yesterday for a good part of the day. As soon as things got challenging, they cringed.

New joke. What do tampons and kiting have in common? Both have strings with p___'s attached.

Take no offense in my comments as I'm just trying to share my personal opinions on what I believe is the most efficient and powerful means of riding waves.

Mahalo,
Hooper

Hooper2, that is where I would disagree with you. Kiters don't really ride waves, they are pulled through them. It is more like water skiing in surf, not surfing. The boards are too small to really harness the power of the wave. Windsurfers can use their sails to catch the wave, then ride the wave which is more like surfing.

You are probably correct for a lot of the kiters you see. However, with the right gear you can surf just as you would when paddling into a wave, except you catch every one. I can't tell you how many surfers look with envy on those head high days with 12 knots and their bobbing and waiting while I catch whatever wave I want and surf it down the line.

I'm not trying to sound like a kite-snob, as I am a long time windsurfer/wavesailer just like you all. But, just this year I realized the true advantages of kiting waves.

Hey, let's get back on topic. I love watching what kiters do, but my passion is windsurfing. I am definittely interested in longboarding waves in light air on one of the new boards. Could someone please discuss technique? Things I would like to hear about particulary are getting out, jibing, tacking, what to do if you wipe out, uphauling, etc. I really haven't longboarded much since I was a beginner 20 years ago.

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